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See America’s top 10 haunted places

10. San Francisco, California: One of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks, Alcatraz Island is also home to some of the city’s weirdest ghost stories. Toptenz.net said Visitors to the island often claim to see apparitions walking the cellblocks, and sometimes hear voices emanating from what was once the cafeteria.

9. Key West, Florida: Sunny Key West may not seem to be a likely setting for haunted houses, but the small beach community is home to some of the oldest American ghost stories. According to Toptenz.net, the city’s rich history of buccaneers and rumrunners provides the backdrop for a lot of these ghosts, like those that are said haunt Captain Tony’s Saloon.

8. Athens, Ohio: Athens Lunatic Asylum: There’s nothing creepier than a good old-fashioned insane asylum. The Athens Lunatic Asylum operated from 1874 until 1993. The hospital held many violent patients, and is notorious for being the site of hundreds of lobotomies. Since closing, the hospital has been at the center of numerous ghost stories, according to Toptenz.net.

7. Portland, Oregon: Shanghai Tunnels: Portland’s coastal location established it as a shipping hub and port of call for sailors during the 1800s. This eventually led to the rise of a practice known as shanghaiing, wherein unsuspecting men and women were kidnapped from bars or hotels, shipped to the Orient, and impressed into slave labor or prostitution. Today, tunnels used for that purpose are said to be haunted by the ghosts of the people who were kidnapped, many of whom were never seen or heard from again, according to Toptenz.net.

6. Charleston, South Carolina: Built in 1809, The Dock Street Theater is said to be the home of two spirits. The first is Nettie, a poor prostitute who was killed near the theater after being struck by lightning. Toptenz.net reports the other is the ghost of Junius Brutus Booth, an actor who is more famous today for being the father of John Wilkes Boothe, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln.

5. Salem, Massachusetts: Joshua Ward House is known as one of the most haunted houses in America, Joshua Ward House is built on the foundation of the home of George Corwin, the man who served as Sheriff during the Salem witch trials. Corwin is infamous for his role in the death of Giles Corey, a local man who was charged with witchcraft. Toptenz.net said many claim that Corey and Corwin haunt the Joshua Ward House.

4. Chicago, Illinois: Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery is rumored to be one of the prohibition-era gangsters’ favorite places to dump bodies, Bachelor’s Grove is an old and decaying burial ground that has been the site of countless stories about ghosts, spirits, and devil worship. According to Toptenz.net, several headstones in the cemetery seem to move at will, and many claim that the spirits of the dead often materialize and walk the grounds at night.

3. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: The Devil’s Den is a rocky outcropping of boulders and shrubs that was the site of one of the clashes of the second day of the battle. The spot is famous for being the location of a Confederate sharpshooter who was killed while taking from behind the rocks. Union forces later found a body, and photographer Alexander Gardner took a photo of it that has since become one of the most iconic images of the battle. According to Topternz.net, this man’s ghost now haunts the Devil’s Den, and to this day visitors to the park often have a great deal of trouble trying to take photos anywhere near the site. Pictures often come out blurry and unusable, and cameras have a strange way of suddenly dying whenever they are turned on in the area.

2. Savannah, Georgia: The Hampton Lillibridge house was built in 1796 and originally served as a boarding house, according to Toptenz.net. It was purchased in the 1960s by a builder who hoped to restore it, and it was then that strange phenomena began to occur. At one point during construction, a portion of the roof collapsed, killing one of the workers. Other builders claimed they would hear voices and footsteps whenever they were alone, and that pieces of construction equipment would often be thrown across the room. Countless exorcisms and investigations have taken place at the house since, and it has gone through several owners, but the presence that haunts it is said to still remain there today.

1. New Orleans, Louisiana: According to TopTenz.net, New Orleans, has truly embraced its reputation as a center of all things paranormal. The city is full of haunted mansions, taverns, and graveyards. You can’t go far without hearing stories of cursed pirate ships, Civil War-era spirits, and voodoo hexes.

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